America is fortunate to have a choice between two men of honor this election year. In another election, the candidates might have tried to exploit the financial crisis for petty political gain. But not this year. John McCain has gone so far as to propose delaying the first debate with Barack Obama so that they can solve our crisis:

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved...I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

Now that, my friends, is honor. This is a time of crisis. The last thing that Americans need right now is to watch their leaders debate about how to end the crisis. Proposing this great delay required great political courage. Cynical Americans might have concluded that McCain was not quite ready to debate or that he was making a show for political gain. But John McCain is willing to risk the cynicism of the voters to do the right thing for the country.

Barack Obama is also a man of honor. Even before McCain's stunningly honorable proposal, Obama called John McCain to propose that they make a joint announcement. This is a time of crisis. What Americans need right now are joint statements reassuring us that our nation's financial health is in the hands of honorable men. According to the Obama campaign:

At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement.

I'm sure the inclusion of the times of the phone calls was unintentional, but I had our crack statistician teams run the numbers. Apparently, Barack Obama is more honorable than John McCain by exactly 6 hours.* Now 6 hours may not seem like a lot of time, but it can mean the difference between honor and dishonor in the White House. For example, if John McCain were to receive a phone call at 3 AM, he might not respond with honor 9 AM.

But though he was slower out of the gate, John McCain has been leading the honor race ever since. He broached a debate delay to Obama during the 2:30 call, and Obama indicated that he would consider it:

I proposed putting out the joint statement. [John McCain] concurred with that. he then also said, 'I would like us to look at suspending the campaign and pushing the debates off.' I said, 'let's put out the joint statement first, and then get our campaigns to discuss this.'

But John McCain knew that the nation could not wait for honor. After the phone call, he immediately released the news of his courage to the press. Meanwhile, Barack Obama, while quick to honor, apparently lacks John McCain's honorable depth, as he is not willing to face the cynicism of the voters by agreeing to delay the debate, explaining, "I believe it makes sense for us to present ourselves to the American people."

Most analysts credit John McCain with winning this battle in the honor war, but we have a long 10 weeks ahead of us. We can expect many more honorable and completely non-political actions from both candidates during that time. Meanwhile, after 16 hours of nonstop meetings, the two candidates have produced an honorable joint statement which will surely make Americans weep with relief:

This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country. We cannot risk an economic catastrophe. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country.

* Al Gore has claimed credit for proposing to issue a joint statement and to delay the debate back in 2005, which would giving him a 3-year honor jump on both candidates.

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